This module is great and allowed me to easily write some tests for the core C code of Freecell Solver ( fc-solve.shlomifish.org/ ) more easily than if I used XS. I had some problems with gcc misbehaving and creating shared libraries which still had missing symbols, but this is not Inline::C's fault and I was able to diagnose and fix the problem using "CLEAN_AFTER_BUILD => 0" (see blogs.perl.org/users/shlomi_fish/2011... for more information).

This module still requires knowing some of the functions from perlapi, but it's still much better than writing it directly using perlxs.

I had a commercial project with a tight deadline, and found perl's number crunching far too slow. There was no time to read books or even very much POD.

It took about eight hours at the end of the week, one question to comp.lang.perl.misc, and a frequent search of perldoc perlguts to get a maths-based module up-and-running with Inline::C, after virtually no previous Inline experience, virtually no XS experience, and having last programmed C some six years previously.

Quite a testament to Inline::C's ease of use and extensive documentation.

However, I did have to Google a couple of bugs, and would like to see a more detailed diagnostic section to cover the apparently occasionally-required insertion of "Inline->init", to get Inline::C to see the __DATA__ section, as well as a section on packaging modules for distribution.

This module is heaven-sent, and I look forward to writing faster modules in the future.